Radio listeners will have much more choice after the second wave of licence applications, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy
IMAGINE a radio station solely dedicated to sport coverage or jazz or classical music. Imagine tuning in your radio and discovering a station which broadcasts only horse racing or predominantly local music by African artists.
Strange as these scenarios may seem, they are some of the 21 applications received for three new medium wave (MW) and five new FM licences to be awarded before the year-end.
The second wave of prospective new radio owners, following the sale of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s six regional radio stations, will provide listeners with a large variety of choices and contribute to the growing diversity of the media industry.
An FM format allows for more entertainment (music), while an MW format allows for more specialised broadcasting (talk radio) which is demonstrated by the array of applicants received by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA).
In terms of transmitting music across the airwaves, the sound quality of FM is usually 10 times better than MW, and one can receive stereo on FM which is not available on MW.
The closing date for applications and written representations was September 30, with hearings proceeding next month.
An Afrikaans talk radio – Punt of Mediumgolf – as suggested by the Punt Media consortium is planned for the AM (specialised) frequency band in both Cape Town and Gauteng. The market, according to the consortium’s application, is “Afrikaanses”.
“Afrikaanses like to laugh. From the Afrikaner Yuppie in his BMW to the old Boere-omie on his Deutz tractor. Humour is an integral part of the culture and language … and they often laugh at themselves,” states an excerpt from the Punt Media consortium’s application.
The radio station aims to be bold enough to tackle controversial issues and hopes to add a breath of fresh air for the new Afrikaans generation.
Moribo consortium, consisting of Moribo Investments – the leisure and entertainment arm of Thebe Investment Corporation – together with Anglovaal Limited, the Media Workers Association of South Africa and Cape Newspapers (of the Independent Group), is also applying for an AM licence in Cape Town.
The radio station – the proposed World Sport Radio Cape Town – aims to offer a “unique format” of live sport targeting sports fundis.
Sports commentary, reports, results and interviews are the aim of the radio station. In its application the Moribo consortium says it aspires to provide entertaining quiz shows and hopes to make the sports radio station the “only one of its kind on offer in the country”.
Another interesting applicant is the Win FM consortium, applying for an FM licence in Gauteng. Headed by Sandy Fletcher, who is also involved in Cani FM, a community radio station which caters for the most affluent areas in Sandton to the poorest of Alexandra township, Win FM aims to be a radio station dedicated to horse racing.
Fletcher says it will broadcast national horse racing to a local audience and will “obviously be connected to a lot of general sports news”. The radio station will have multi-formatted programming which will appeal to different people at different times of the day.
There is a captive audience for Win FM as there are vast numbers of punters who have no radio service catering for their needs, Fletcher argues.
Solid Gold Radio, headed by Tony Sanderson, is applying for a FM licence in Gauteng. Sanderson says it will be a “unique” radio station as South Africa does not have a commercial radio station dedicated to playing music hits of the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and early Nineties. “Most radio stations pay mere lip service to Golden Oldies, but Solid Gold will do more than this,” he said.
In its application, Solid Gold says it will be keeping with a “unique and distinctive style of presentation [with] all speech- based programmes kept entertaining, punchy, slick, fast moving and brief”.
Furthermore, the Solid Gold listener will never be “patronised nor regarded as anything but an intelligent individual”.
Applicants for FM licences in Durban are concentrating on Zulu-based programming with the Real Radio consortium pushing for a licence for its proposed KZfm radio station.
A representative for the consortium said the ratio would be 70% Zulu to 30% English language programmes, adding that the programmes will cater for 15 to 35 year-olds with its local music content “going beyond” the quota set down by the IBA. It will be 60% music. The station, he says, will have a “kind of urban Durban feel … When you listen to it, you’ll want to take your shirt off.”
The other consortium – Radio One FM Limited – has an endorsement letter signed by King Goodwill Zwelethini and will have 90% of its programmes in Zulu. Its format will be a combination of talk and music.
In addition to most applicants’ claims that their radio formats are `unique’, many have chosen interesting names including: Zebra FM, the motivation being that Zebra stripes would make a funky logo; Jozzi 99.2 FM, television presenter Tim Modise’s consortium; and Jozi Radio, Moribo consortium. Jozi or Jozzi is a slang term for Johannesburg.
Objections have been lodged against some of the radio stations, including the Moribo consortium applications, Jazz FM consortium and Win FM Stereo. These objections were being scrutinised by the IBA. However, at the hearings scheduled for next month, where oral representations will be made to IBA councillors, the Broadcasting Act will no doubt be quoted several times.
Once the hearings are completed, South Africa’s radio industry, though not unique, will be in line with most international media industries where there is an abundance of choice for listeners.